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summer 2010, volume 27, number 2<br />
Education initiatives address<br />
potential MD shortage 10<br />
Using robotics to study<br />
movement disorders 14<br />
A look back at Alumni<br />
Weekend 2010 18<br />
Going through the motions<br />
Sophisticated machines work together to<br />
monitor patients as they perform elbow<br />
and shoulder movements, an activity often<br />
affected by stroke. 14
Photo provided courtesy of the Chicago Cubs.<br />
2 ward rounds summer 2010
Contents<br />
<strong>Ward</strong> <strong>Rounds</strong><br />
Summer 2010<br />
Volume 27, Number 2<br />
Senior Executive Director<br />
of Communications<br />
Tom Garritano<br />
Communications Director/Editor<br />
Michele M. Weber<br />
Contributing Writers<br />
Katie Costello<br />
Devon McPhee<br />
Marla Paul<br />
Cheryl SooHoo<br />
Editorial Board<br />
Richard Ferkel, MD ‘77<br />
Rebecca Katzman, PhD ‘04<br />
June Macchiaverna, PT ‘75<br />
Julie Melchior, MD ‘91<br />
Ukeme Umana, MD ‘85<br />
Darren Boyd, Class of 2011<br />
J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, Vice President for Medical Affairs<br />
and Lewis Landsberg Dean<br />
Rebecca A. Cooke, Senior Associate Dean for Administration<br />
Ginny Darakjian, Assistant Dean for Alumni Relations<br />
Katherine E. Kurtz, Dean for Development<br />
Robert M. Rosa, MD, Dean for Regulatory Affairs and Chief<br />
Compliance Officer<br />
Tom Garritano, Senior Executive Director of<br />
Communications<br />
Michele M. Weber, Communications Director<br />
Dean’s Message<br />
page 2<br />
Features<br />
Reform School<br />
Education initiatives help address potential<br />
physician shortage<br />
page 10<br />
Mr. Roboto<br />
PT enlists sophisticated robotics to study<br />
movement disorders<br />
page 14<br />
A Weekend to Remember<br />
Former students return to alma mater<br />
for Alumni Weekend fun<br />
page 18<br />
Alumni Association<br />
F. Douglas Carr, MD ’78, MMM,<br />
President<br />
James A. Hill, MD ’74, GME ’79,<br />
President-elect<br />
<strong>Ward</strong> <strong>Rounds</strong> is published quarterly for alumni and friends<br />
of <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine and<br />
the McGaw Medical Center graduate medical education<br />
programs. Material in <strong>Ward</strong> <strong>Rounds</strong> may not be reproduced<br />
without prior consent and proper credit.<br />
Address all correspondence to:<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> Univer sity Feinberg School of Medicine<br />
Office of Communications<br />
420 East Superior Street, Rubloff 12th floor<br />
Chicago, IL 60611<br />
Departments<br />
<strong>Ward</strong> <strong>Rounds</strong> News / page 3<br />
President’s Message / page 22<br />
Alumni News / page 22<br />
Progress Notes / page 27<br />
Upcoming Events / page 29<br />
Call or e-mail us at 312-503-1246 or<br />
ward-rounds@northwestern.edu.<br />
©2010 <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong><br />
<strong>Ward</strong> <strong>Rounds</strong> is a federally registered trademark of<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong>.<br />
Design<br />
Pivot Design, Inc.<br />
Facing<br />
The Feinberg School of Medicine and <strong>Northwestern</strong> Memorial Hospital have teamed<br />
up with the Chicago Cubs to showcase the new <strong>Northwestern</strong> Medicine brand<br />
throughout historic Wrigley Field. As part of this important sponsorship, there is<br />
highly visible signage near the visitors’ on-deck circle, as well as on the new Chicago<br />
Cubs Wall of Fame in the concourse, and the logo is emblazoned on dozens of hand<br />
sanitizers all over the park. <strong>Northwestern</strong> Medicine is the name attached to our<br />
collaborative strategic plan to transform health care and be among the nation’s top-tier<br />
academic medical centers.
Dean’s Message<br />
The Class of 2010 celebrated graduation on Thursday, May 20,<br />
surrounded by friends, family, and faculty. Professor Dan<br />
Federman, senior dean for alumni relations and clinical teaching at<br />
Harvard Medical School, and one of the leading educators of our<br />
time, offered perspectives on the profession of medicine and encouraging<br />
words as this next generation joins our ranks. The enthusiasm<br />
of the graduating class was electric and I was buoyed by thoughts of<br />
their future contributions to medicine. They have been accepted to<br />
a range of wonderful residency programs across the country, including three of the eight<br />
Family Medicine slots offered by our new Feinberg program.<br />
Each graduating class reminds us of the importance of continuous curriculum renewal.<br />
The rapid changes in medicine are sometimes startling and we must keep pace with new<br />
developments such as electronic medical records, simulation technology, genetics, and<br />
imaging. At the same time, many facets of medicine such as altruism, empathy, communication,<br />
and dedication remain unchanged, and are arguably even more important as patients<br />
navigate an increasingly complex health care system. During this 100th anniversary of the<br />
Flexner Report on medical education, it is fitting that we are deeply engaged in curriculum<br />
reform to address changing student needs. This is a major undertaking, the details of which<br />
we will continue to share as we work toward implementation for the 2012/13 academic year.<br />
The new curriculum will be built upon the solid foundation that exists in our current framework,<br />
and the Steering Committee envisions an innovative, integrated curriculum that provides<br />
students with earlier, substantive clinical experience, increased flexibility in designing<br />
a course of study, and the opportunity to explore scholarly areas of interest in greater depth.<br />
One small aspect is highlighted in the “Reform School” feature in this issue, describing the<br />
activities of our recently reinvigorated Department of Family and Community Medicine.<br />
It is a challenging but exciting time to be in health care and medicine. With many of the<br />
changes we are currently pursuing at <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of<br />
Medicine, we will continue to create areas of excellence in our approach to medical<br />
education, striving to form the careers of talented clinicians and researchers, and blazing<br />
new trails for others to follow.<br />
Best regards,<br />
J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD<br />
Vice President for Medical Affairs and<br />
Lewis Landsberg Dean<br />
2 ward rounds summer 2010
<strong>Ward</strong> RounDS nEWS<br />
Maggie Daley Center for Women’s Cancer Care<br />
The Maggie Daley Center for Women’s<br />
Cancer Care, part of the Robert H. Lurie<br />
Comprehensive Cancer Center of <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong>, was unveiled in April.<br />
The center is a partnership between <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of<br />
Medicine, <strong>Northwestern</strong> Medical Faculty<br />
Foundation, <strong>Northwestern</strong> Memorial<br />
Hospital, and the Rehabilitation Institute<br />
of Chicago.<br />
Named after the First Lady of<br />
Chicago, who receives treatment for breast<br />
cancer at the Lurie Cancer Center, the new<br />
two-floor Center for Women’s Cancer<br />
Care offers a unique integrative, holistic<br />
approach to cancer care that addresses all of<br />
a woman’s needs — emotional, aesthetic,<br />
and physical — during treatment. Centralizing<br />
these services is important because<br />
finding and driving to various locations<br />
often feels overwhelming to a patient<br />
whose primary focus is cancer treatment.<br />
At the center, located in <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
Memorial Prentice Women’s Hospital, a<br />
patient can access services to improve<br />
quality of life in the same place she is receiving<br />
cutting-edge therapy for breast and<br />
gynecological cancers from internationally<br />
renowned medical oncologists, gyneand<br />
surgical oncologists. A woman could<br />
get acupuncture or Reiki, visit a nutritionist<br />
or see a health psychologist to cope with<br />
her diagnoses and life during treatment, all<br />
while receiving chemotherapy. A new<br />
program also offers rehabilitation services<br />
for women to maximize their strength and<br />
endurance. A “healing boutique” offers<br />
wig and prosthesis fittings, hats, and<br />
makeup consultations for patients undergoing<br />
chemotherapy and radiation treatments.<br />
The Center for Women’s Cancer Care<br />
also offers patients access to novel therapies<br />
and drugs, as well as more than 100 clinical<br />
trials. A cancer genetics program screens<br />
patients at higher-than-average risk for cancer<br />
and provides education and guidelines<br />
for early detection and possible disease prevention.<br />
The center includes 11 private chemotherapy<br />
rooms, most with lake views, as<br />
well as a group chemotherapy area.<br />
Mrs. Daley, accompanied by her<br />
husband, Mayor Richard M. Daley, spoke<br />
at an April 19 ceremony to celebrate the<br />
center’s opening.<br />
First Lady Maggie<br />
Daley (seated)<br />
spoke at the April<br />
19 dedication of<br />
the Center for<br />
Women’s Cancer<br />
Care that carries<br />
her name. Her husband,<br />
Mayor Richard<br />
Daley (left), is<br />
pictured with philanthropist<br />
Ann<br />
Lurie and Dr. Steven<br />
Rosen, director of<br />
the Robert H. Lurie<br />
Comprehensive<br />
Cancer Center of<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong>.<br />
“The tremendous care I have received<br />
from <strong>Northwestern</strong> Hospital and the Lurie<br />
Cancer Center has impressed upon me the<br />
remarkable healing power of care in every<br />
sense of the word — from treatment to<br />
thoughtfulness, protection, and sensitivity.<br />
“When people walk into this center for<br />
women’s cancer care, which now carries<br />
my name … a fact that has honored me<br />
more than anyone will ever know … I feel<br />
certain that they will receive the utmost<br />
care possible, both medically and emotionally,<br />
in both big and small ways,” she said.<br />
Marla Paul<br />
Feinberg Moves Ahead — Again!<br />
For the second year in a row, <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> Feinberg<br />
School of Medicine has jumped one space forward in the U.S.<br />
News & World Report rankings, moving from No. 19 to<br />
No. 18 in the category of Best Research Medical School. Feinberg<br />
shares the spot with Mount Sinai School of Medicine.<br />
Rankings are based on five categories that can be classified into<br />
two areas: the opinion of experts (deans, program directors, and<br />
senior faculty members) about program quality, and statistics that<br />
measure the quality of the school’s students, research activity, and<br />
faculty. The medical school began participating in the survey in<br />
1995 and ranked 32 that year.<br />
0<br />
10<br />
20<br />
30<br />
40<br />
50<br />
U.S. News & World Report ranking has<br />
been consistent for more than a decade<br />
22<br />
2000<br />
20<br />
2001<br />
22 21<br />
2002<br />
2003<br />
20 20 20<br />
2004<br />
2005<br />
2006<br />
21<br />
2007<br />
20<br />
2008<br />
19<br />
2009<br />
18<br />
2010<br />
wardroundsonline.com 3
<strong>Ward</strong> RounDS nEWS<br />
Medical School Journey Complete<br />
for the Feinberg Class of 2010<br />
Members of the Class of 2010 spent four momentous years<br />
navigating the challenging world of medical school — studying<br />
and training in a focused effort to absorb all they could about<br />
the practice of medicine. On May 20, these 156 <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine graduates joined their<br />
family, friends, and faculty mentors at Chicago’s Navy Pier<br />
Grand Ballroom to complete the last leg of their emotional<br />
journey to become physicians: earning their Doctor of<br />
Medicine (MD) degrees.<br />
J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, vice president for medical<br />
affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean of the medical school, cut<br />
through the nervous anticipation of all assembled and set the<br />
stage for the long-awaited event. Jameson reminded the 151 st<br />
graduating class that they were departing medical school during<br />
a time of health care reform and great scientific advancements —<br />
an exciting, yet challenging time of change and transition that<br />
they are well poised to handle and succeed in.<br />
Jameson went on to say, “Please retain the passion that<br />
brought you into the profession of medicine and the core values<br />
that you have developed during your training here; these will<br />
guide you throughout your career. Also, never forget along<br />
the way that <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of<br />
Medicine will always be one of your homes, an alma mater, a<br />
place to renew your friendships.”<br />
In his remarks,<br />
<strong>University</strong> President<br />
Morton O.<br />
Schapiro, PhD,<br />
again spoke<br />
directly to the<br />
graduates, declaring<br />
a certain faith<br />
he has in them to<br />
proudly represent<br />
the medical school and the university in their practice of<br />
medicine. “I know you’re going to change the world,” he<br />
emphatically stated.<br />
During the ceremony, Thomas C. Corbridge, MD, professor<br />
of medicine in the Feinberg Division of Pulmonary and<br />
Critical Care Medicine, received the 2010 George H. Joost<br />
Award for teaching excellence. During his acceptance, Corbridge<br />
reminded the class to savor their accomplishments and<br />
make certain they remain students for life. He added that he<br />
was “truly moved to be recognized by such an intelligent group<br />
of physicians.”<br />
In presenting the award, Class President Martin Pham, MD<br />
’10, of Santa Ana, Calif., described Corbridge as a “persuasive<br />
instructor and wonderful friend.” Pham, who was matched in<br />
the <strong>University</strong> of Southern California’s neurological surgery<br />
residency program, is excited to be returning to his home state<br />
to start his career.<br />
“I’ve always been interested in science and want to use that<br />
knowledge to help people directly,” Pham said. “As a physician,<br />
I’ll be able to help people at their time of greatest need; it’s more<br />
than an honor, it’s a privilege.”<br />
Following the faculty award, Daniel D. Federman, MD,<br />
senior dean for alumni relations and clinical teaching and Carl<br />
W. Walter Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at<br />
Harvard Medical School, presented the keynote address. His<br />
lighthearted, yet insightful recommendations focused on three<br />
main topics (teaching, loving, and choosing) and for each, he<br />
provided a mantra that the newly proclaimed doctors could<br />
bear in mind throughout their careers.<br />
In regard to teaching, Dr. Federman’s advice was to “stick<br />
to the basics, think out loud, and be kind,” reminding the class<br />
to never miss a chance to say something positive to someone<br />
else. As he discussed loving, Federman recalled his residency<br />
Above: Senators from the<br />
four student medical<br />
colleges pose with Class<br />
President Martin Pham<br />
(right). They include: Leslie<br />
Kim, Marguerite Converse<br />
(center), Jason Rho<br />
and Lindsay Kuo. Right:<br />
Dr. Daniel Federman,<br />
Harvard Medical School,<br />
gave the keynote address<br />
in the Grand Ballroom at<br />
Chicago’s Navy Pier.<br />
4 ward rounds summer 2010
To view more<br />
graduation photos,<br />
visit <strong>Ward</strong><strong>Rounds</strong>Online.com.<br />
“As a physician, I’ll be able to<br />
help people at their time of<br />
greatest need; it’s more than<br />
an honor, it’s a privilege.”<br />
— Martin Pham, MD ‘10<br />
experience and cautioned graduates that the long hours, constant<br />
fatigue, and overwhelming responsibility for the life and<br />
death of patients would take its toll on their relationships.<br />
Despite their hectic schedules, he counseled them to “kiss and<br />
hug your loved ones at every chance” because you never know<br />
when you will fall asleep and lose the opportunity to do so.<br />
When speaking of making choices in a world of “moral hazard,”<br />
the Harvard dean pleaded with the graduates to “always take<br />
the high road,” regardless of the pressures they will most certainly<br />
face.<br />
Dr. Federman’s poignant address served as the final lesson<br />
for the Class of 2010. It was, at last, time for Dean Jameson,<br />
along with President Schapiro, to distribute diplomas, while<br />
the college mentors hooded each graduate, signifying their<br />
transition from student to doctor. At the same time, many<br />
graduates were honored with additional academic distinctions.<br />
Following the conferring of degrees, Susie Morris, MD ’10,<br />
MA ’10, of Price, Utah, who was selected as the class speaker by<br />
medical school deans and her Student Senate peers, addressed<br />
the convocation. Morris will soon begin her psychiatry residency<br />
at the <strong>University</strong> of Southern California.<br />
In her humorous and retrospective speech, Morris shared<br />
an embarrassing story about a patient care mishap that a kindhearted<br />
resident had deemed her “one big screwup,” and tales<br />
of medical school memories she would carry with her forever.<br />
Morris also reflected on her teachers — those faculty members<br />
“who remember that in the beginning, nothing is obvious; that<br />
‘pimp’ questions should not be ego driven; and that ‘Is there<br />
Top, left: Emmanuel Bessay, MD ’10, a native of Liberia, West<br />
Africa, celebrates with family. Top, right: Sylvia Ukonga, MD ’10,<br />
is hooded by college mentor Andrea Baumgartner, MD. Inset:<br />
Susie Morris, MD ’10, MA ’10, was selected as class speaker by<br />
her peers and the medical school deans. Above: The newly<br />
minted doctors toast one another.<br />
anything else I can do for you?’ is student-speak for ‘Can I<br />
please go home now?’”<br />
To conclude the ceremony, the graduates recited the Declaration<br />
of Geneva, also known as The Physician’s Creed —the<br />
same oath they took as first-year medical students —pledging<br />
to maintain by all means in their power “the honor and the<br />
noble traditions of the medical profession” and always considering<br />
the health of their patients first and foremost.<br />
Upon departing the ballroom, the Class of 2010 gathered<br />
with Dean Jameson, who led a traditional champagne toast that<br />
celebrated their achievements and marked the beginning of the<br />
next phase of their lives —their new journey as physicians.<br />
Katie Costello<br />
wardroundsonline.com 5
<strong>Ward</strong> RounDS nEWS<br />
norTHWESTErn MEDICIne tm<br />
Health Care Reform 2010 Highlights<br />
President Obama signed the Patient<br />
Protection and Affordable Care Act<br />
(PPACA) into law on March 23, 2010, legislation<br />
that holds promise of being the<br />
most important public policy achievement<br />
of this generation. Until now, payment for<br />
medical care had grown, except for Medicare,<br />
in a fashion entirely without public<br />
planning. Consequently, the United Sates<br />
has been the only developed nation without<br />
universal health care coverage, with more than 45 million<br />
Americans without access to pay for health care. To add insult<br />
to injury, despite pockets of world-class medicine, the U.S. as a<br />
whole does not rank near the top of any list of national health<br />
care excellence, while leading the world in costs. Here are some<br />
highlights of the 1000-<br />
page bill.<br />
new insurance<br />
regulations<br />
PPACA prohibits<br />
some of the most negative<br />
practices of the<br />
health insurance industry. Effective immediately, insurance can no<br />
longer exclude children because of pre-existing conditions. By<br />
2014, pre-existing exclusions for adults will disappear. Until then a<br />
subsidized health insurance exchange will temporarily be<br />
available. Insurance companies cannot impose lifetime limits on<br />
coverage. The federal government will regulate annual coverage<br />
limits until 2014, at which time annual limits will disappear.<br />
Dependents of parents with insurance must have optional coverage<br />
until age 26. The law prohibits rescission, the practice of insurance<br />
dropping individual coverage because of high utilization.<br />
Finally, preventive services will have no out-of-pocket costs.<br />
insurance plan<br />
Insurance companies, like any other business, need revenues to<br />
exceed expenses. Employers choose among various plan benefits<br />
and prices that are difficult to compare because benefits vary from<br />
plan to plan. PPACA addresses this challenge in several ways.<br />
Insurance companies will participate in insurance exchanges to<br />
create transparency and facilitate comparison shopping. Both individuals<br />
and employers will choose coverage from these exchanges.<br />
Larger employers can self-insure or purchase plans. The Department<br />
of Health and Human Services will review and certify plans<br />
in exchanges.<br />
The insurance industry uses “loss ratio” as a euphemism for<br />
benefits they pay for care, as opposed to administrative costs, capital<br />
investments, and profits. The legislation limits minimum loss<br />
ratio to 85% for large group plans; 80% for small group plans; and<br />
75% for individual plans. Thus, a greater share of premiums will<br />
fund actual care provision.<br />
Health care reform imposes restriction on plans for discrimination.<br />
By 2014, there will be no difference in plans by gender or<br />
health. The ratio between highest to lowest premiums by age will<br />
be limited to 3:1 and by tobacco use to 1.5:1.<br />
coverage for the poor<br />
The federal government will mandate that states provide Medicaid<br />
for all below 133% of the federal poverty level, with graduated<br />
mandates up to 400%. The federal government will provide<br />
matching subsidies to states that have less generous provisions.<br />
In addition, Medicaid must pay at 100% of Medicare rates. There<br />
will be subsidies so residents can purchase individual plans from<br />
insurance exchanges.<br />
payment<br />
reform<br />
The Congressional<br />
Budget Office (CBO)<br />
certified PPACA as<br />
budget neutral or better<br />
over 10 years.<br />
Clearly, the CBO predicated potential for controlling rapidly<br />
escalating health care costs to payment reform. At present, both<br />
governmental and private insurance reimburse for individual services,<br />
an environment that leads to disproportionate compensation<br />
for specialty versus primary care and a strong incentive to do<br />
more. Medicare, and consequently almost all insurers, use a<br />
Resource-Based Relative Value System to set payments. Unfortunately,<br />
this system has been a total failure and has escalated the<br />
drift of physicians into specialized care. The reform law provides<br />
for demonstration projects to bundle charges, replacing pay for<br />
service or procedure.<br />
The legislation proposes complicated mechanisms for physicians<br />
and hospitals to report quality measures, ultimately progressing<br />
to adjusting payment to quality. Both metrics to assess<br />
quality and appropriate sampling size remain undefined. There<br />
are funds for demonstration projects to assess using “accountable<br />
care organizations” as a method to measure quality while controlling<br />
costs and coordinating care.<br />
The haphazard U.S. health care system is inequitable, inefficient,<br />
and financially unsustainable. PPACA is a partial fulfillment<br />
of President Obama’s campaign promise to create a<br />
sustainable, fair system. The health care reform legislation leaves<br />
many unsolved challenges, but may prevent a system meltdown.<br />
Jim Foody, MD, FACP<br />
Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine<br />
Governor, American College of Physicians,<br />
Northern Illinois Chapter<br />
6 ward rounds summer 2010
Batjer Co-chairs NFL Head, Neck and Spine Medical Committee<br />
H. Hunt Batjer, MD, Michael J. Marchese Professor of Neurological Surgery and chair in the <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery, was recently named by<br />
Commissioner Roger Goodell as one of the new co-chairs of the National Football League (NFL) Head, Neck<br />
and Spine Medical Committee.<br />
As co-chair of the committee, Batjer will assist in strengthening the NFL’s leadership role in research,<br />
education, prevention, and treatment of head and spine injuries in sports. Batjer will also seek to advance the<br />
mission of the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Medical Committee. Batjer, and co-chair Richard G. Ellenbogen,<br />
MD, of the <strong>University</strong> of Washington School of Medicine, will also be responsible for appointing other<br />
members of the committee.<br />
While the focus of their research explorations will be on the safety of NFL players, Batjer says that the findings<br />
regarding how to make contact sports safer will apply to non-professional sports and even children’s athletics.<br />
“This is a great opportunity to take a fresh look at the science that we have behind NFL policies and engage in proactive activities<br />
like longitudinal assessments of athletes throughout their careers and beyond that will allow us to discover new knowledge,” he says.<br />
Batjer anticipates that a number of his colleagues from <strong>Northwestern</strong> will be involved in the projects that the committee initiates,<br />
including materials sciences experts from the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science who can assist in<br />
developing technology like nanomaterials in order to improve the safety of athletic equipment by making impacts safer on the head<br />
and spine.<br />
Teresa Woodruff Awarded<br />
Tripartite Legacy Prize<br />
Teresa Woodruff, PhD, Thomas J.<br />
Watkins Professor of Obstetrics and<br />
Gynecology, chief of the Division of<br />
Fertility Preservation, and director and<br />
founder of the Institute for Women’s<br />
Health Research at <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine,<br />
is the 2010 recipient of the Tripartite<br />
Legacy Faculty Prize — an award<br />
presented annually at Lewis Landsberg<br />
Research Day to the faculty member who has demonstrated<br />
excellence in research that emphasizes translational approaches,<br />
teaching and mentoring, and leadership.<br />
Teaching and mentoring are at the heart of Woodruff’s<br />
successful career at Feinberg, which began in 1995; and her<br />
impressive research and career accomplishments place her<br />
among the medical school’s most honored faculty. Woodruff<br />
maintains that she’s simply a product of the university’s researchbased<br />
environment.<br />
For Woodruff’s colleagues, it was no surprise that she was this<br />
year’s winner of the Tripartite award, as they consider her one of<br />
the “best and the brightest.”<br />
Sherman Elias, MD, John J. Sciarra Professor and chair in the<br />
Feinberg Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, nominated<br />
Woodruff for this honor because, he says, her work as an educator<br />
at all levels — from high school students, to university<br />
students, to postgraduate education — has had an enormous<br />
impact on individuals and society.<br />
“Teresa has helped <strong>Northwestern</strong> become one of the premier<br />
national and international centers for reproductive biology,<br />
obstetrics and gynecology, and women’s health care research<br />
and care,” says Elias.<br />
Pat Garcia Named to<br />
Presidential AIDS Council<br />
Patricia Garcia, MD, MPH, associate<br />
professor in the Department of Obstetrics<br />
and Gynecology at <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine,<br />
has been appointed to the Presidential<br />
Advisory Council on HIV-AIDS.<br />
For the next three years, she will serve<br />
on President Barack Obama’s 24-member<br />
council (including researchers, service<br />
providers, and community leaders) to<br />
help reduce HIV-AIDS incidence, improve health outcomes,<br />
reduce disparities, and assure access to quality care.<br />
Dr. Garcia believes her appointment comes at a critical time.<br />
“Health care reform is incredibly important to those affected<br />
by HIV,” she said. “As money becomes tighter, states are being<br />
forced to weigh prevention versus treatment, and prevention is<br />
the key to the future.”<br />
Garcia, who also chairs the board of the Pediatric AIDS<br />
Chicago Prevention Initiative, believes her appointment to the<br />
Presidential AIDS Council is a reflection of the progress the<br />
Chicago community has made in perinatal HIV prevention.<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> has a long history of collaborating with many<br />
organizations devoted to this cause, including the AIDS<br />
Foundation of Chicago.<br />
“We’ve focused on providing services to pregnant women<br />
and prevention in both women and children,” said Garcia,<br />
director of the Perinatal HIV Program at <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
Memorial Hospital. “I’m excited and enthused to address HIV<br />
issues on a national and international level.”<br />
(information taken from <strong>Northwestern</strong> Memorial Hospital<br />
press release)<br />
wardroundsonline.com 7
<strong>Ward</strong> RounDS nEWS<br />
Tackling Pediatric Patient Safety in Chicago<br />
It was essentially an unmapped frontier before Donna Woods, EdM, PhD, and Jane Holl, MD, MPH, decided to<br />
help improve pediatric patient care at Children’s Memorial Hospital (CMH) in 2003. Dr. Woods led the study<br />
with Dr. Holl that determined that more than 70,000 children annually (a conservative estimate they cited in<br />
Pediatrics in 2005) experience adverse effects serious enough to cause a longer hospital stay or, worse yet,<br />
disabilities, and 60 percent of these situations are preventable. Woods and Holl quickly realized that if they<br />
were going to make a positive impact, more could be accomplished by involving other institutions. Thus was<br />
born Woods’ idea, the Chicago Pediatric Patient Safety Consortium (the Consortium), the only effort of its<br />
kind in the country.<br />
“Pediatric medicine is different than adult care and so are the<br />
safety issues,” explains Woods, co-director of graduate programs<br />
in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety, a collaboration between<br />
the graduate and medical schools at <strong>Northwestern</strong>. “Clinicians are<br />
seeing children from infancy to 18 years of age — the epidemiology<br />
and treatments are different, as are the cognition and physiology<br />
— which leads to a lot of complexity. Medication safety, the<br />
most widely studied area of pediatric safety, indicates that errors<br />
in medication delivery are more common in children because dosages<br />
must be customized and calculated for each patient.”<br />
With these complicating factors, and the volume of pediatric<br />
patient care, Dr. Woods, a research professor at <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine, felt a multi-institutional<br />
approach was necessary. Together with Dr. Holl, associate professor<br />
of pediatrics, she convinced pediatric chairs at Chicago hospitals<br />
treating large numbers of children, including John H. Stroger<br />
Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Mt. Sinai Children’s Hospital,<br />
Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital, and Advocate<br />
Hope Children’s Hospital, to join their efforts.<br />
The duo co-chairs the group, which includes urban and suburban,<br />
as well as a safety net and a freestanding children’s hospital.<br />
This diversity allows them to collect important data about inpatient<br />
safety risks (the sickest kids and most complex cases), and<br />
develop effective interventions to improve pediatric patient safety<br />
in different environments, says Woods. It also gives them a significant<br />
volume of patients to study and provides anonymity to the<br />
participating institutions.<br />
“We were very fortunate in identifying pediatric department<br />
leaders who said, ‘we know we need to do this’ — and who really<br />
took on the task of convincing their leadership,” says Dr. Holl,<br />
who was recently named director of the Institute for Healthcare<br />
Studies at the Feinberg School of Medicine.<br />
Clinical Perspective<br />
Michael Reese Health Trust provided the Consortium’s initial<br />
funding to conduct pediatric patient safety assessments. Sixty-five<br />
focus groups were held with clinicians at different professional<br />
levels in each institution. It was no surprise that teamwork and<br />
communication — as previously shown in the literature to be the<br />
root cause of many patient safety errors — were highlighted.<br />
“We learned a lot through this process,” explains Woods, “and,<br />
as a result, developed training modules around standardized communication.<br />
Communication is a fundamental skill; we learn it<br />
early and it becomes connected to who we are. Because there is no<br />
significant training on how to communicate in health care, each<br />
person brings his or her own idiosyncratic style. We felt there<br />
should be a standardized structure for organizing information.”<br />
In addition to creating a 20-minute computer training module<br />
covering standardized communications in patient care and appropriate<br />
clinical team responses, they crafted the policies required to<br />
support these activities.<br />
Woods and Holl quickly learned that table-top exercises and<br />
computer modules worked to enhance patient safety awareness,<br />
but to change behavior, more robust training was needed. As a<br />
result, they began using simulation exercises on medical teamwork<br />
and communication. These videotaped sessions enable individual<br />
clinicians to view and critique their approaches, highlighting the<br />
need for personal and team improvement.<br />
The Consortium typically uses Children’s Memorial Hospital<br />
to pilot test all interventions before dissemination to the other<br />
participating institutions. “This is a beautiful example of how<br />
8 ward rounds summer spring 2010
Donna Woods, EdM,<br />
PhD, had the idea to<br />
start a pediatric patient<br />
safety consortium in<br />
Chicago, which has<br />
been going strong for<br />
seven years.<br />
academia can team up with and leverage the clinical capacity of<br />
community partners to effect change,” says Dr. Holl, CMH’s<br />
patient safety medical director. “Children’s has seen the overall<br />
benefits of this through increased focus and awareness.” At present,<br />
the Consortium is tapping into the expertise of Dr. William<br />
Hamman, who helped create training systems for pilots at United<br />
Airlines, to develop and implement a method of simulation called<br />
“in-situ” — scenarios conducted in the actual clinical setting. The<br />
focus is twofold: develop capacity to conduct these simulations<br />
and build effective models for medical teamwork.<br />
Dr. Holl also took advantage of the relationship between<br />
United Airlines and CMH and adapted one of the air carrier’s<br />
robust programs to fit the hospital’s needs. “We’ve been able to<br />
implement a successful reporting system (100 incidents reported<br />
every week since 2005) and a separate organizational structure to<br />
promote patient safety,” explains Holl. The cross-disciplinary<br />
Safety Quality Learning Team reviews, addresses, and communicates<br />
solutions about reported problems.<br />
Open to Sharing<br />
An original Consortium member is Dr. David Soglin, chairman<br />
of the Department of Pediatric Health and Hospital Systems for<br />
Cook County and John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital. “We launched<br />
this group thinking, ‘Let’s see where it takes us.’ We’ve worked<br />
together to develop research-driven projects that have practical<br />
value — things that I can and should be dealing with and that contribute<br />
to our QI work at Stroger,” he explains.<br />
“There are real advantages to participating, including access to<br />
like-minded colleagues with different ideas, and the opportunity<br />
to contribute to the knowledge of pediatric safety,” Soglin continues.<br />
“From a scientific standpoint, working with different hospitals<br />
with different characteristics has allowed us to figure out if the<br />
problems we identified were unique to one organization or an<br />
issue that all the institutions were experiencing.”<br />
Along with two other doctors and a research assistant, and<br />
pulling in other staff as needed for different Consortium projects,<br />
he participates in bi-weekly phone calls and quarterly meetings.<br />
The busy chair says he wishes he could do more.<br />
Still Going Strong<br />
In its seventh year, the consortium has received three grants from<br />
Michael Reese Health Trust to continue its pediatric patient safety<br />
work, which now is focused on teaching member institutions how<br />
to develop and implement their own in-situ simulations to<br />
improve communication and teamwork and identify issues and<br />
challenges in existing organizational systems. Woods and Holl are<br />
pleased that the Consortium has continued to evolve and that the<br />
members are still committed after so many years.<br />
“The Consortium members have been great colleagues<br />
throughout this process,” says Woods. “They have been very<br />
supportive on many dimensions because they see the true value<br />
not only in our work in Chicago, but also in the papers and presentations<br />
that spread the knowledge and learning.”<br />
Jane Holl, MD, MPH,<br />
co-chairs the consortium<br />
that includes five large<br />
Chicago hospitals with significant<br />
pediatric services,<br />
including Children’s<br />
Memorial Hospital.<br />
There are two current research projects funded by the Agency<br />
for Healthcare Research and Quality that Drs. Holl and Woods<br />
believe have widespread potential. The first involves creating a<br />
national standard for critical communications to improve effectiveness,<br />
reliability, and safety when transferring seriously ill children<br />
from smaller referring hospitals to institutions with large<br />
pediatric services. The second project will build the capacity to<br />
conduct in-situ simulations to improve communication, teamwork,<br />
and the safety of organizational systems within the diverse<br />
Consortium institutions.<br />
“Our work is so relevant to clinical practice,” Holl explains.<br />
“We realize it has spurred internal process improvement, putting<br />
pediatric patient safety on the Consortium hospitals’ radar screens<br />
and bringing different clinicians together to design improved<br />
safety processes and systems.”<br />
Michele M. Weber<br />
wardroundsonline.com 9
10 ward rounds summer 2010
Using 22 different pens, President Obama signed the historic<br />
2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also<br />
known as the Health Reform bill) into law on March 23.<br />
Making health care more affordable for the estimated 32<br />
million Americans currently without insurance, and bringing<br />
it more in line with the financial means of many others,<br />
the act also aims to improve patient safety and quality of<br />
care. It hopes to promote a culture of disease prevention<br />
and wellness, where individuals and families more frequently<br />
seek doctor’s offices and other care models rather<br />
than emergency departments for medical treatment.<br />
While health reform will improve patient outcomes and<br />
care for the underserved, one significant wrinkle could<br />
make caring for many more Americans extremely difficult.<br />
By 2025 the United States may be running a deficit of as<br />
many as 159,000 physicians, with reform measures potentially<br />
increasing the shortfall by 25 percent, according to the<br />
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).<br />
“There are physician shortages in a variety of areas; general<br />
surgeons and pediatric subspecialists, for example;<br />
however, by far the largest shortage of providers we face is<br />
of primary care physicians and that’s without health care<br />
reform,” says Russell G. Robertson, MD, chair of the<br />
Department of Family and Community Medicine at<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine.<br />
Since 2006 Dr. Robertson has served as chair of the Council<br />
on Graduate Medical Education (COGME). One of 17<br />
council members, he advises Congress and the Department<br />
of Health and Human Services on issues relating to U.S.<br />
physician supply and distribution. “One of the challenges is<br />
helping people understand how dire the shortage really is.”<br />
Involved in the development of the legislation pertaining to<br />
primary care training and access, Dr. Robertson traveled to<br />
Washington, D.C., more than a dozen times last and early<br />
this year. Fortunately, his background makes him uniquely<br />
suited to educating legislators and others concerned about<br />
a future drought of physicians and other health care professionals.<br />
Dr. Robertson taught elementary and junior high<br />
school in Utica, Mich., for four years before deciding to<br />
become a physician. After fulfilling his pre-med requirements,<br />
he started on his new career path by earning an MD<br />
degree at Wayne State <strong>University</strong> in 1982 and then completing<br />
a family medicine residency at Grand Rapids Medical<br />
Education and Research Center in Michigan, as well as<br />
a fellowship in faculty development at the <strong>University</strong> of<br />
Missouri in 1985. He later acquired a certificate of added<br />
qualification in geriatrics. Joining Feinberg in 2005 as department<br />
chair, Dr. Robertson continues to focus on education<br />
as a means to ensure an adequate pipeline of health care providers<br />
for the nation through innovative academic programs<br />
and experiences and mentoring junior faculty.<br />
“Russ sees the big picture across many different stages,<br />
from national to local, and does a good job of finding the<br />
right people with the appropriate skill sets to make his<br />
vision come to life,” explains Deborah L. Edberg, MD,<br />
assistant professor of family and community medicine.<br />
“He’s an inspirational leader who sees people’s strengths—<br />
some they haven’t even identified themselves. He wants<br />
people to succeed and that’s refreshing.”<br />
She speaks from experience. In 2007 Dr. Robertson<br />
recruited her to the former Evanston <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
Healthcare, where she became associate residency program<br />
director. In 2009 Dr. Robertson recruited Dr. Edberg to<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> to serve as program director for Feinberg’s<br />
new family medicine residency. But first, she had to help<br />
develop it. “He called me with a ‘crazy’ idea about starting<br />
a program from scratch,” laughs Dr. Edberg. “I was hesitant<br />
but also excited about all of the amazing things we<br />
could accomplish. If anybody could make this happen,<br />
Russ was the one to do it.”<br />
One of only some 20 training programs in the country<br />
located in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC)<br />
and affiliated with a university, it provides family medicine<br />
residents with community-based experience in underserved<br />
areas. Early on, Dr. Robertson recognized the<br />
impact physician shortages have on vulnerable populations.<br />
So he began exploring a new educational model for<br />
training family physicians while the Feinberg School’s<br />
family medicine residency was still based at Glenbrook<br />
Hospital. He quickly found a receptive audience in<br />
medical school leaders who were open to deepening and<br />
broadening the institution’s community engagement.<br />
In 2007 Dr. Robertson started searching for a partner.<br />
He explains, “As we looked at hospitals to work with there<br />
were several necessary criteria: it had to be helping under-<br />
wardroundsonline.com 11
To read more about medical<br />
student global health experiences,<br />
visit <strong>Ward</strong><strong>Rounds</strong>Online.com.<br />
served patients, be reasonably accessible from our Chicago<br />
campus, and be eager to become a teaching institution.”<br />
The decision to approach Norwegian American Hospital<br />
grew out of a conversation with Mark Loafman, MD,<br />
MPH, one of Dr. Robertson’s first faculty recruits and the<br />
chief clinical integration officer at Norwegian. It became<br />
apparent to them that a partnership would be a win-win<br />
for both organizations.<br />
“Norwegian American’s patient population is medically<br />
underserved, and Erie Family Health Center’s [an<br />
FQHC] Humboldt Park office was only a few blocks<br />
away,” says Robertson. “In addition, Erie has a long history<br />
of collaboration with the medical school, and <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
Memorial Hospital Corporation has been<br />
providing Erie with financial support to maintain their<br />
clinical presence there.” Norwegian also shared the risk of<br />
starting a new training program and sealed its commitment<br />
to becoming part of <strong>Northwestern</strong>’s educational community:<br />
the hospital will be contributing $250,000 annually, in<br />
addition to providing graduate medical education funding.<br />
Adds Dr. Loafman, “We all benefit from the collaborative<br />
relationships that have evolved. These partnerships<br />
will change the health care landscape, opening new doors<br />
for <strong>Northwestern</strong> to connect with and help transform the<br />
Humboldt Park community.”<br />
The new three-year residency not only offers a rich<br />
environment for clinical training in diverse inpatient and<br />
outpatient settings but also affords a focus on research and<br />
leadership training. It will expose residents to programs<br />
that provide a full spectrum of community health issues,<br />
such as maternity care, HIV programs, and elder care.<br />
Three quarters of Erie’s patients speak Spanish, so the new<br />
trainees will begin learning the language through a monthlong<br />
immersion program.<br />
Approved late last year by the Accreditation Council<br />
for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Residency<br />
Review Committee, the program filled all of its eight spots<br />
during this year’s Match. <strong>Northwestern</strong>’s first class of family<br />
medicine residents will begin their training in July.<br />
The AAMC and its members have embarked on their own<br />
strategy to avoid a physician shortage. Among its solutions,<br />
the organization supports the increased use of non-physician<br />
health care professionals such as physician assistants—<br />
and so has <strong>Northwestern</strong> in a big way. In early June, the<br />
Feinberg School of Medicine will welcome 30 students to<br />
its new 24-month PA program. Serving as the program’s<br />
academic home, the Department of Family and Community<br />
Medicine also houses classroom and training space in<br />
its Abbott Hall offices for these new students.<br />
Dr. Robertson credits former medical school Dean<br />
Lewis Landsberg with initiating the PA program at <strong>Northwestern</strong>.<br />
An alumnus and former faculty member at Yale<br />
<strong>University</strong>’s School of Medicine, Dr. Landsberg had watched<br />
physician assistants and PA students interacting with faculty<br />
members and students at his alma mater. He wondered why<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> didn’t have a similar program.<br />
“I got wind of his idea to create a program at Feinberg<br />
and helped lay the initial groundwork,” Robertson recalls.<br />
“Our new PA program adds to the portfolio of individuals<br />
that we will be training to become health care providers.<br />
At the same time, we will introduce medical students to<br />
more contemporary models of care that rely on mid-level<br />
providers and their contributions to interdisciplinary health<br />
care teams.”<br />
The plan calls for budding physician assistants and<br />
physicians to learn together and from each other in classroom<br />
and small group discussions that already exist in the<br />
medical school curriculum. Topics such as bioethics, economics,<br />
and organization of medicine could provide common<br />
ground to explore their future working relationships<br />
and understand how each group may have differing yet<br />
complementary approaches to patient care.<br />
“One of Feinberg School’s main competencies focuses<br />
on system awareness and team-based care,” says James A.<br />
Van Rhee, PA program director and associate professor of<br />
family medicine and community medicine. “It’s difficult for<br />
students to achieve this competency if they are only<br />
exposed to working with similar students. If we can add a<br />
different group of learners, with different life experiences<br />
and future responsibilities to the mix, it may help to enrich,<br />
enliven, and bring new ideas to discussions.”<br />
By law, physician assistants must work as part of a team<br />
with supervising physicians. While medical students will<br />
12 ward rounds summer 2010
enefit from the perspective of their health care paraprofessional<br />
colleagues, <strong>Northwestern</strong>’s first crop of PA students<br />
will gain an early appreciation of the challenges physicians<br />
face. Remarks Van Rhee, “Our PA students will not need to<br />
wait until the clinical rotations of their second year to come<br />
in contact with physicians. We will start integrating the two<br />
groups now.”<br />
Dr. Robertson recounts how he had just stepped out of his<br />
car, after a two-hour drive down a bumpy road to a Mayan<br />
village near the Guatemala-Belize border in Central America.<br />
A frantic man approached: his pregnant wife was in<br />
labor in a nearby thatched-roof hut with dirt floors. Dr.<br />
Robertson entered the simple home to find a woman lying<br />
on an elevated wood frame bed cushioned with cardboard.<br />
The baby had a compound presentation with its hand next<br />
to its head, putting the mother at risk for vaginal tearing.<br />
Using his satellite phone, Robertson reached out to<br />
Sherman Elias, MD, chairman of the medical school’s obstetrics<br />
and gynecology department. His advice? An emergency<br />
C-section and preferably performed in a hospital. Dr. Robertson<br />
promptly loaded the woman in a car and off they went<br />
to the nearest medical facility. The woman and baby survived,<br />
and Dr. Robertson once again learned that practicing global<br />
medicine means to expect the unexpected.<br />
If the United States potentially faces a severe physician<br />
shortage, especially critical in rural and underserved urban<br />
locations, then imagine what underdeveloped and impoverished<br />
areas of the world face every day. As board president<br />
of Hillside Healthcare International, a health clinic in Punta<br />
Gorda, Belize, Robertson has been committed to providing<br />
global health services—both immediate and sustainable—<br />
since his first volunteer stint at the clinic in 2001. He says,<br />
“It was a transformative experience. We take for granted so<br />
much of what we have in our country.”<br />
Dr. Robertson has used his expertise to foster Hillside’s<br />
mission to provide inexpensive medical services and<br />
valuable clinical experiences for medical students and other<br />
allied health care students from the U.S. and abroad. Traveling<br />
to Belize at least once a year, he serves as faculty supervisor<br />
for the organization’s clinical education program.<br />
This former faculty member at the Medical College of<br />
Wisconsin brought his personal interest and acquired skills<br />
in international medicine to his position at <strong>Northwestern</strong>,<br />
where the Department of Family and Community Medicine<br />
soon began developing clinical global medicine opportunities<br />
for medical students and residents. Dr. Robertson is<br />
now the associate director for global education within the<br />
Feinberg School of Medicine’s Center for Global Health.<br />
Among many educational initiatives, he plans to create a<br />
series of courses that better prepare students for some of<br />
the surprises they will encounter in international and<br />
under-resourced settings.<br />
Interestingly, Dr. Robertson’s efforts in boosting this<br />
nation’s supply of primary care providers have a global and<br />
a local connection. Several years ago, he shared data showing<br />
a weak but real connection about medical students with<br />
international experiences being more likely to become primary<br />
care physicians with Robert J. Havey, MD ’80, GME<br />
’84. Dr. Havey, who practices with Chicago Lake Shore<br />
Medical Associates, had noticed a disturbing recruiting<br />
trend that was affecting his clinical practice: a shortage of<br />
generalist physicians. As a result of their conversation, Dr.<br />
Havey and his associates raised more than $250,000 for the<br />
Center for Global Health in 2009 to make it financially viable<br />
for <strong>Northwestern</strong> medical students to travel to underserved<br />
areas around the world to expand their education.<br />
Although Dr. Robertson transitioned from being a<br />
teacher to becoming a physician some 35 years ago, he has<br />
never stopped being the consummate educator. He uses the<br />
power of education to address health care challenges that<br />
affect us close to home and across the globe, while doing<br />
what he loves best: being a primary health care provider.<br />
wardroundsonline.com 13
Mr. Roboto<br />
Dr. Jules Dewald and his team look to<br />
change how physical therapists approach<br />
the treatment of movement disorders<br />
through an innovative use of robotics.<br />
By Devon McPhee<br />
14 ward rounds summer 2010
If you were a study participant in the lab of Jules<br />
Dewald, PT, PhD, chair of the Department of<br />
Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences<br />
(NUPTHMS), you might find yourself with an arm floating<br />
in virtual anti-gravity, or pushing through simulated<br />
viscose matter, or repeating an exercise that replicates the<br />
action of lifting a gallon of milk, all while attached to a<br />
high-definition electroencephalograph (EEG) recorder. By<br />
studying these movements and mapping the accompanying<br />
brain patterns, Dewald and his team hope to unlock the<br />
basic science behind movement disorders — specifically<br />
those found in stroke and cerebral palsy patients — and<br />
develop more targeted therapies to treat them. Reaching<br />
this goal, Dewald says, requires an innovative use of robotics<br />
in human movement science.<br />
“Robotics has been used in research since the early<br />
’90s, but we are among the first to use it to study the science<br />
behind movement disorders,” explains Dewald, associate<br />
professor of physical therapy and human movement<br />
sciences, biomedical engineering, and physical medicine and<br />
rehabilitation at <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong>. “Once we<br />
understand the science, we can use these robots for therapy.”<br />
Dewald’s science-based approach to developing therapies<br />
for movement disorders diverges from the way rehabilitative<br />
treatments have traditionally been developed.<br />
“The way physical therapy currently works is through<br />
qualitative evaluation — trial<br />
and error,” he says. “Usually,<br />
therapies are developed before<br />
we understand the underlying<br />
mechanisms of the movement<br />
disorder. Our approach is to<br />
first understand the mechanisms,<br />
and then develop therapies<br />
based on that under -<br />
standing.”<br />
Getting from point A (figuring<br />
out the science) to point<br />
B (more targeted therapies)<br />
requires a hefty investment of<br />
time, since researchers must<br />
break a movement into distinct<br />
pieces and understand<br />
each one to get at the whole.<br />
“It’s literally like taking<br />
Humpty Dumpty apart and<br />
putting him back together<br />
again,” he explains.<br />
The slow pace of understanding<br />
the mechanisms<br />
underlying movement impairment<br />
following brain injury is<br />
likely one of the main reasons<br />
this approach to rehabilitation<br />
science remains novel, Dewald says, but he has faith that<br />
once clinicians see the results from science-based therapies,<br />
they will become converts.<br />
“The best way to convince rehabilitation clinicians<br />
about the merits of reductionist scientific inquiry is to<br />
demonstrate the results you can obtain,” he says.<br />
A team of researchers aids Dewald in his pursuits,<br />
including two assistant research professors of physical<br />
therapy and human movement sciences, Ana Maria Acosta,<br />
PhD, and Jun Yao, PhD; an instructor in physical therapy<br />
and human movement sciences, Michael Ellis, MPT, DPT;<br />
a research associate in biomechatronical engineering from<br />
the Netherlands, Arno Stienen, PhD; five DPT/PhD in<br />
biomedical engineering students, Theresa Sukal Moulton,<br />
DPT, Christa Nelson, Laura Miller, Rachel Hawe, and<br />
Lindsay Garmirian; three PhD students, Daniel Krainak,<br />
MS, Jacob McPherson, MS, and Natalia Sanchez; and three<br />
research physical therapists, Carolina Carmona, DPT,<br />
Donna Hurley, DPT, and Justin Drogos, DPT.<br />
Taking a peek inside the Dewald lab, one could easily<br />
draw comparisons to a strength training room at the gym<br />
— except the machines here build knowledge instead of<br />
muscle. Three large machines have customized robotic<br />
arms that measure movement or create “haptic” or virtual<br />
environments for study subjects to operate in, and serve<br />
as important tools for the research being conducted.<br />
In May, Dewald<br />
added a fourth robot to<br />
his collection, which he<br />
calls the “Rolls Royce” of<br />
upper extremity robotics.<br />
The new device, developed<br />
and built with a<br />
quarter-million dollar<br />
grant from the National<br />
Institutes of Health<br />
(NIH), will allow for a<br />
much larger work space<br />
on which to conduct<br />
studies and has the added<br />
ability to perturb the arm<br />
— mimicking the action<br />
of an arm getting pushed<br />
out of the way or the<br />
jerking of a steering<br />
wheel — to add to the<br />
complexity and realworld<br />
application of the<br />
lab’s studies. The device<br />
also gives participants the<br />
ability not only to move<br />
The ACT-2D measures the effect of abnormal<br />
shoulder/elbow joint torque coupling on the<br />
expression of spasticity in stroke survivors.<br />
their arms forward but<br />
also up and down.<br />
wardroundsonline.com 15
Laterality Index values for both control (pink)<br />
and stroke (green) groups across movement<br />
tasks. Positive values indicate more contralateral<br />
hemisphere activity, while negative values<br />
indicate more ipsilateral hemisphere activity.<br />
A Sequence of Studies<br />
For the past 20 years, Dewald has studied one of the<br />
most stereotypical movement disorders following a<br />
stroke, abnormal movement coordination of the shoulder<br />
and elbow. For a stroke patient with this disability,<br />
everyday tasks such as putting on a coat or turning a car<br />
radio dial become difficult because the more she lifts the<br />
affected arm at the shoulder, the more her elbow flexes.<br />
To begin decoding this impairment, Dewald developed<br />
two studies that quantified the mechanics of the<br />
shoulder-elbow system in stroke patients.<br />
One study asked participants to reach for a target,<br />
first with the arm supported by an air-bearing device,<br />
then without support. Dewald and his colleagues at the<br />
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago found that individuals<br />
with severe limitations could reach the target fairly<br />
accurately when supported but not when unsupported.<br />
This occurs, Dewald says, because a support provides a<br />
surface for the arm to push down on, eliminating the<br />
need for the shoulder to lift up and allowing the elbow<br />
to extend as normal.<br />
The second study involved evaluating the isometric<br />
movement of the shoulder and elbow using a load cell, a<br />
mechanical device that measures the forces acting on it.<br />
Participants’ forearms were placed on a metal plate<br />
attached to the load cell. Hands, wrists, and half of their<br />
forearms were set in a cast to restrict movement and to<br />
hold the arm in a set position. The subjects then lifted<br />
up their arm or flexed their elbow, and the load cell<br />
measured what was happening. At the same time,<br />
patients were attached to a high-resolution EEG device<br />
16 ward rounds summer 2010<br />
(using 160 electrodes), recording which parts of the<br />
brain were activated.<br />
Data from the second study helped Dewald determine<br />
two things about stroke patients. First, coupled<br />
with information from the first study, it presented a<br />
quantifiable definition of how the shoulder and elbow<br />
worked together. Second, by pinpointing the areas in the<br />
brain that were activated during shoulder and elbow<br />
activity, Dewald and his team could then compare the<br />
patterns of stroke and non-stroke subjects. They found<br />
that non-stroke patients had more succinct areas of activation,<br />
while stroke patients had more overlap. In other<br />
words, stroke patients were asking their brains to do the<br />
same job with fewer neurons.<br />
Developing a Treatment<br />
Therapeutic benefits of the research were observed in a<br />
small study of seven individuals with chronic moderate<br />
to severe stroke. First, the researchers measured the<br />
work area (ability to extend in a circular motion) of participants<br />
using a range of limb weights generated by the<br />
ACT-3D haptic robot. They found that as the limb<br />
became heavier, the participant’s work space became<br />
smaller. Next, subjects conducted reaching exercises<br />
three times a week over the course of eight weeks.<br />
Throughout the study, if a subject was able to consistently<br />
reach at least 90 percent toward the target, the<br />
weight of the limb was increased by 25 percent.<br />
After eight weeks, each participant’s work area was<br />
once again measured. All patients saw, at minimum, a<br />
20 percent increase. Dewald attributes this improvement<br />
to the plasticity of the brain: it had learned how to use its<br />
remaining neural pathways more efficiently, as opposed<br />
to creating new ones in that short time span.<br />
“It’s like when the express lanes on the highway<br />
open up,” Dewald explains. “No new road is built, but<br />
you make better use of what exists.”<br />
Brain images taken during the study bolster<br />
Dewald’s hypothesis. Those taken at the beginning of<br />
the session showed that participants used both ipsilateral<br />
and contralateral sides of the brain as they reached with<br />
the affected limb. After eight weeks, activity had shifted<br />
primarily to the contralateral side which, in non-stroke<br />
individuals, controls the entire movement.<br />
Current Projects<br />
With the basic mechanics laid out, the team has now<br />
begun the process of unraveling how a stroke patient’s<br />
shoulder, elbow, and brain operate in real-world situations.<br />
Combining robotics with virtual reality, a new
study explores reaching movements in a variety of environments,<br />
including across a hard surface, through<br />
sticky matter, and in anti-gravity.<br />
Going one body part further with stroke research,<br />
the lab has also started looking at hand disabilities. The<br />
complexity of the hand makes it one of the most highly<br />
affected areas post-stroke, Dewald says, because a big<br />
part of the cortical loss occurs to parts of the brain that<br />
control it, which also makes it one of the most difficult<br />
systems to decode. Current work has shown promise in<br />
the use of neuromuscular electrical stimulation of wrist<br />
and hand muscles to help subjects regain the ability to<br />
open and close their hand, as well as to grasp objects.<br />
The lab began its initial work on movement disorders<br />
in children with cerebral palsy about five years ago.<br />
That effort has accelerated over the past two years<br />
thanks to an R01 grant from the NIH. These funds will<br />
support a study that hopes to determine how the muscles<br />
in children with cerebral palsy work together and a<br />
second study that will challenge the mobility of subjects<br />
with reaching exercises.<br />
Finally, an extension of the lab’s international reach<br />
is set to occur this year when research associate Arno<br />
Stienen, PhD, returns to the Netherlands and the <strong>University</strong><br />
of Twente. Stienen will retain an adjunct assistant<br />
professorship at <strong>Northwestern</strong>, and facilitate a fluid collaboration<br />
between the two schools.<br />
“Under our collaboration, we will be taking the<br />
[robotics] wish list from this department and seeing<br />
what we think is possible to build in the Netherlands,”<br />
Arno explains.<br />
Research and Technology<br />
Dewald attributes his lab’s success to the strong support<br />
he has received across the university, saying that Feinberg’s<br />
focus on systems research and close collaboration<br />
with the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering<br />
and Applied Science was what initially drew him to the<br />
school in 1988. Today, as chair of NUPTHMS, Dewald<br />
has made it a point to incorporate research and general<br />
engineering knowledge into the DPT curriculum.<br />
The department launched a new curriculum in 2009<br />
that includes a technology-related course during the<br />
final trimester of the third year, and all DPT students<br />
spend at least a year and a half conducting research.<br />
Additionally, instead of separating clinical and basic<br />
science courses, the new curriculum gives students<br />
exposure to the two in parallel, making the relevance of<br />
basic scientific knowledge to clinical cases immediately<br />
apparent and allowing DPT students to better retain this<br />
information for their future careers, Dewald says.<br />
Two new degree offerings (both launched during the<br />
2009-10 academic year) also focus on the combination<br />
of movement science and engineering or research.<br />
Students in the dual-degree DPT/PhD in engineering<br />
program enroll in one of three engineering tracks —<br />
biomedical, mechanical, or electrical engineering and<br />
computer science — as well as in the DPT program.<br />
These students take DPT courses with those in the<br />
traditional program, further exposing all students to<br />
engineering and science principles.<br />
The existing PhD in neuroscience now offers students<br />
the option to specialize in movement and rehabilitation<br />
science. The NUIN-MRS program prepares<br />
graduates for work in neurobiology-related rehabilitation<br />
research, specifically in the study of the brain and<br />
the neurobiological mechanisms underlying movement<br />
disorders. The degree will generate systems neuro-scientists<br />
with strong backgrounds in technology and data<br />
analysis for the rehabilitation sciences, Dewald says.<br />
Overall, the department chair says he still expects<br />
the majority of NUPTHMS graduates to become clinicians,<br />
adding that he believes Feinberg DPT students’<br />
early exposure to research and technology during medical<br />
school — something that few other institutions offer<br />
— will advance the treatment of movement disorders.<br />
“Our students will open doors and be our ambassadors<br />
to get newly developed, device-based therapies<br />
into clinical practice,” he says.<br />
Jules<br />
Dewald, PT,<br />
PhD, chairs<br />
the Department<br />
of<br />
Physical<br />
Therapy<br />
and Human<br />
Movement<br />
Sciences<br />
at <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong>.<br />
For more information about cerebral<br />
palsy research in the NUPTHMS<br />
department,<br />
visit <strong>Ward</strong><strong>Rounds</strong>Online.com.<br />
wardroundsonline.com 17
alumni weekend 2010<br />
a weekend<br />
to remember<br />
1<br />
experience the energy…and see what the buzz is about.<br />
These words from the 2010 Alumni Weekend materials hinted at the fun and excitement that awaited alumni who<br />
signed up for the weekend April 9-11. And they didn’t overpromise. With beautiful spring weather in Chicago,<br />
delicious dinners with lovely desserts, and plenty of time to visit with classmates and learn about what is new at their<br />
alma mater, the 568 guests (alumni, faculty, staff, and students) dedicated themselves to the weekend’s activities.<br />
Forty-one members of the <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> School of Medicine’s Class of 1960 (see photo on page 20)<br />
attended at least some of the weekend’s events. The Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement<br />
Sciences joined in the celebration at the Reunion Ball with two of its own 50-year graduates in attendance.<br />
As Roger Hurwitz, MD’60, told Ginny Darakjian, assistant dean of Alumni Relations, at the Reunion Ball on<br />
Saturday, “I have looked forward to this 50-year class reunion for so long and I am enjoying it so much that I’m quite<br />
sad that it is nearly over.” There were 30 events over 36 whirlwind hours on Friday and Saturday. Among the activities<br />
enjoyed by alumni were: the State of the School from Dean J. Larry Jameson, vice president for medical affairs and<br />
Lewis Landsberg Dean, and Jeffrey C. Miller, vice dean and chief operating officer of the medical school, who<br />
retired from his position in June.<br />
There was a medical school history tour by Ron Sims, special collections librarian from the Galter Health Sciences<br />
Library, and a lecture, as well as a CME program, class dinners, receptions, luncheons and Jeff Miller’s talk<br />
about health care reform, a scholarship brunch, and the Reunion Ball, a black-tie affair attended by a host of<br />
alumni, along with Dr. Lewis Landsberg, dean emeritus of the medical school, <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> President<br />
Morton Schapiro, and <strong>Northwestern</strong> Memorial Hospital CEO Dean M. Harrison.<br />
if you are interested in viewing<br />
the state of the school or jeff<br />
miller’s talk, “health care reform:<br />
what happened?”,<br />
visit wardroundsonline.com.<br />
18 ward rounds summer 2010
1. Bruce Henschen, a second-year medical student, accompanies Drs. Dick Bryan,<br />
Ronald Semerdjian, and Thomas Soper, Class of 1960, on a tour. 2. Medical students<br />
attended the Daniel Hale Williams Award dinner honoring Joseph DiCara, MD ’86.<br />
3. <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> President Morton Schapiro addressed Reunion Ball<br />
attendees. 4. Melvin Gerbie, MD ’60, received the 2010 Dean’s Award. 5. Dean J.<br />
Larry Jameson presents the State of the School to alumni. 6. Annette Barnes, MD ’87,<br />
(left) enjoys the weekend’s activities along with Carla Hightower, MD ’87, GME ’91, and<br />
Ann Hightower, MD ’85. 7. During a dinner on Friday night, the Class of 1985 gathered<br />
to share fond memories. 8. Drs. Nancy Schriver Furey and Elsie Steelberg returned<br />
for their 50-year reunion.<br />
2<br />
3<br />
5<br />
4<br />
6<br />
7<br />
8
Class of 1960<br />
There were 33 graduates from the Class of 1960 who<br />
attended a Saturday luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton as part of<br />
Alumni Weekend events. They included:<br />
Front row: Dick Bryan, Herb Niestat, Ira Bernstein, Earl<br />
Bracker, Warren Furey, Nancy Schriver Furey, Joseph<br />
Libretti, Melvin Gerbie, Ronald Semerdjian, Cyril Ramer,<br />
Elsie Steelberg. Second row: Bob Gale, Roger Hurwitz,<br />
Christopher Curran, Lawrence Sturman, Eugene Kostiuk,<br />
James Meltzer, Fred Gill, Henry Roenigk, Robert Linden,<br />
Mike Serio, Courtney Anthony, James Grissom. Back row:<br />
Tom Fiene, Ira Halper, Barry Ramer, Jim Simonson, Gerald<br />
Kern, Maurice Barancik, Thomas Braun, James Bellenger,<br />
Ed Alexander, Albert Newcomer.<br />
16<br />
15<br />
To view more photos from<br />
Alumni Weekend 2010,<br />
visit <strong>Ward</strong><strong>Rounds</strong>Online.com.<br />
20 ward rounds summer 2010
9. Bruce Scharschmidt, MD ’70, received the Distinguished Alumni Award.<br />
10. Archana Lal-Tabak, MD ’84, and Theresa Yuschok, MD ’85, at the Daniel<br />
Hale Williams Award dinner. 11. James A. Hill, MD ’74, GME ’79, and wife<br />
Sandra at the Reunion Ball. 12. Attendees touched a simulation model during<br />
their tour of the new Simulation Technology and Immersive Learning Center.<br />
13. Bill Healey, coordinator of PT alumni affairs, danced with 1st-year PT<br />
students Sarah Kraushar (left) and Christine Marchinski at the Reunion<br />
Ball. 14. Lindsay Huurman, Christine Kelly, James Kelly, MD ’73, and Walt<br />
Huurman, MD ’62, connected at the Nathan Smith Davis Club reception.<br />
15. Jeanie and Tim Sullivan, MD ’64, put on<br />
their dancing shoes at the Ball. 16. Warren<br />
Furey, MD ’60, received the 2010 Medical 10<br />
School Service Award. 17. Jeff Miller presents<br />
“Health Care Reform: What Happened?”<br />
during a luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton.<br />
18. Hal Oloffson and Ruben Shehigian,<br />
both 50-year PT graduates, represented<br />
their program at the Reunion Ball.<br />
9<br />
11<br />
13<br />
14<br />
12<br />
17<br />
18<br />
wardroundsonline.com 21
President’s Message<br />
Attending Alumni Weekend this<br />
year provided the full spectrum of<br />
experience for me. Here are snippets<br />
of my observations:<br />
• The CME discussion featured<br />
advances in imaging. Lee Rogers,<br />
MD ’59, former chair of radiology<br />
at <strong>Northwestern</strong>, described his relationship<br />
to Nobel prizewinning Sir<br />
Godfrey Hounsfield and his creation<br />
of cross-sectional imaging — the “CAT Scan.” (The<br />
first one appeared on campus while I was a medical clerk at<br />
Wesley.) Dr. Rogers noted that “this machine didn’t come<br />
with instructions.” It is this sense of novelty that permeates<br />
the medical school campus.<br />
• The students I met had the same sense of enthusiasm that I<br />
remember in my classmates on the first day of anatomy lab.<br />
Yes, they seemed a bit more sophisticated, but certainly not<br />
jaded. A mentorship luncheon was attended by more than 80<br />
students who asked alumni insightful questions about their<br />
chosen specialty. At another luncheon, I heard the stories of<br />
talented students who were able to attend <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
only because of scholarship funding. Their experiences<br />
confirmed my sense that our profession is in good hands for<br />
the next generation.<br />
Multiple Themes Surfaced at<br />
Alumni National Board Meeting<br />
Change, collaboration, scholarship … these were a few of the<br />
topics covered during the bi-annual Alumni National Board<br />
meeting on Saturday, April 10. Vice Dean Jeff Miller spoke about<br />
new and continuing efforts underway at the medical school, and<br />
Bruce Scharschmidt, MD ’70, shared progress on the Nathan<br />
Smith Davis Club Scholarship efforts.<br />
Jeff Miller, who retired from his medical school position in<br />
June, represented Dean J. Larry Jameson (who missed the event<br />
for the first time due to a conflict with a Council of Deans meeting)<br />
to provide an overview of the school’s progress. Change was<br />
the theme of his presentation, with curriculum reform, One<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong>, <strong>Northwestern</strong> Medicine, and NuVentions cited as<br />
programs to help elevate education and keep collaboration thriving<br />
at the medical school.<br />
“We have to dramatically change what we do,” said the<br />
school’s chief operating officer. “Medical schools are always<br />
changing curriculum and faculty tracks; we’re doing both at the<br />
same time. Beginning very early in the new curriculum, our students<br />
will be introduced to clinical activity.”<br />
• Our alumni dinner featured Michael Barratt, MD ’85,<br />
GME ’89 who brought a medical school sesquicentennial<br />
banner back from his trip to the International Space Station.<br />
Newly inaugurated <strong>University</strong> President Morton Schapiro<br />
delighted the audience with his disarming humor.<br />
• Back at the educational session, an imaging technique that<br />
differentiates the presence of uric acid crystals within the<br />
synovial fluid was demonstrated in the evaluation of a<br />
patient with acute podagra. The look on the faces of the<br />
Class of 1960 said it all — “I don’t need a fancy test to treat<br />
THAT!” It reminded me that in our enthusiasm for technology,<br />
experience and clinical judgment should always<br />
have their place.<br />
All the best,<br />
Above: Jeff Miller, the medical school’s<br />
chief operating officer, provided an<br />
overview of the many activities that are<br />
happening in and around the medical<br />
school at the board meeting. Right:<br />
Steven Azuma, MD ’70, thanks Ginny<br />
Darakjian, assistant dean of alumni<br />
relations, for the lovely gift he received<br />
for his years of service on the medical<br />
school’s Alumni National Board.<br />
F. Douglas Carr, MD ’78, MMM<br />
President, Alumni Association
ALUMni nEWS<br />
Jay Sarthy, Brittne Halford, and Miguel<br />
Visbal from the Class of 2013 are the<br />
recipients of the inaugural Nathan Smith<br />
Davis Club Scholarships. They will receive<br />
$12,500 per year for four years. The scholarships<br />
are based on merit and need.<br />
Alumni donors and scholarship recipients<br />
met during a brunch in the Lurie Atrium<br />
n Sunday, April 11, bringing Alumni<br />
Weekend events to a close.<br />
In its third year, NuVentions, a program created by students<br />
in the engineering, law, medical and business schools, is enabling<br />
unique team collaborators to develop and commercialize new<br />
medical devices. Along the same vein, One <strong>Northwestern</strong> is the<br />
intersection of medicine and science. With many grants now<br />
involving more than one investigator, students and faculty on<br />
both campuses are learning to break down silos that once existed<br />
between the disparate disciplines, according to Miller.<br />
Continuing the theme of working together, <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
Medicine is fueling a new spirit of collaboration between the<br />
medical school and <strong>Northwestern</strong> Memorial Hospital in areas<br />
such as finance, IT, communications/marketing, and development.<br />
“This brings the clinical aspects of the enterprise closer<br />
together, creates synergy in research and education, and will help<br />
us derive benefits from each of the parts being engaged in one<br />
another’s mission,” explained Miller. “This doesn’t happen<br />
unless you force it ….”<br />
Bruce Scharschmidt, MD ’70, president of the Nathan Smith<br />
Davis Club, updated the board on the direction of the NSD Club<br />
Scholarships, of which there were three inaugural recipients in<br />
2009, each receiving $12,500 per year for four years. With 160<br />
lifetime club members ($35K cumulative), and 300 to 400 annual<br />
members ($1K or more), approximately 25 percent of alumni<br />
participate. NSD total contributions were $2.9 million in 2009,<br />
enabling the new scholarships for students based on merit and<br />
need. Dr. Scharschmidt noted that things are going well but he<br />
wants to enhance the Club’s visibility. His goal is to establish well<br />
planned, interactive communication channels, keeping messages<br />
short and direct, to share progress and enlist more alumni talent.<br />
Following Dr. Scharschmidt, Julie Melchior, MD ’91,<br />
reported on participation in the student mentoring event that<br />
occurred on Friday, April 9. First-, second-, third-, and a few<br />
fourth-year students took advantage of the opportunity to talk<br />
with alumni about their specialized areas of medicine. More than<br />
108 students registered for the event. Fourteen alumni, representing<br />
13 specialties, spent time answering their questions. “Internal<br />
Medicine was the most popular specialty, which has been a<br />
change from the past,” explained Dr. Melchior. Emergency Medicine,<br />
Ear, Nose and Throat, Neurology, and Ophthalmology<br />
were the next most popular areas of interest. Looking to include<br />
as many specialties as possible in future mentoring events, Dr.<br />
Melchior invited other alumni who might be interested in participating<br />
to contact Ginny Darakjian in alumni relations.<br />
The Office of Development recounted two unique events<br />
that occurred earlier in 2010 — in California — held in the homes<br />
of Richard Ferkel, MD ’77 (Los Angeles) and Gene Bauer, MD<br />
’67 (San Francisco). The receptions allowed alumni and current<br />
students to interact with prospective students from the area who<br />
had been accepted to the medical school’s Class of 2014 but had<br />
not yet committed. Dean J. Larry Jameson and Dr. James Schroeder,<br />
senior associate dean for external relations, each attended<br />
one of the events, which were well received by the prospective<br />
student guests, according to development’s Larry Kuhn, senior<br />
associate director for academic initiatives.<br />
In the last order of business, Assistant Dean Ginny Darakjian<br />
thanked outgoing board members for their years of service and<br />
provided each with a gift. Departing members were Steven<br />
Azuma, MD ’70, Laura Mikhail-Malek, MD ’00, GME ’03; Sonja<br />
Boone, MD ’90; and Yvette Cua, MD ’94, GME ’97. New and reelected<br />
board members include: (new) Carla Hightower, MD ’87,<br />
GME ’91; Paul Bonucci, MD ’96; Kerry Humes, MD ’90; (reelected)<br />
Carlos Flores, MD ’78; Alan Micco, MD ’87; Julie Melchior,<br />
MD ’91.<br />
The next National Alumni<br />
Board meeting will be<br />
Saturday, October 2, at 2 pm.<br />
wardroundsonline.com 23
ALUMni nEWS<br />
ALUMni proFILE<br />
Being a Good Samaritan<br />
50 million people<br />
in the U.S. are without health insurance<br />
8 out of 10 people<br />
come from working families<br />
18,000 people in the U.S.<br />
die each year because they don’t have health insurance.<br />
These are some of the statistics Kerry Humes, MD ’90, was concerned<br />
about as she saw patients without health insurance in her<br />
private practice. She decided to do something to make a difference<br />
for those in her community who were working hard but<br />
unable to afford high insurance premiums and unable to get government<br />
assistance. Along with two nurse practitioners in<br />
Moline, Ill., she devised a plan to open a free medical clinic to<br />
help some of the 50,000 uninsured people in the Quad Cities<br />
(once four, now five communities in Illinois and<br />
Iowa). Eighty percent are working in low-paying<br />
jobs and falling through the “cracks of the health<br />
care system.”<br />
Thus was born the Good Samaritan Free Clinic,<br />
which first operated out of a church in May 2007 and<br />
then moved to a bigger facility in 2008 when space<br />
was donated by the Sedona Group, a temporary<br />
agency in the area. Open two half days each week,<br />
they have treated approximately 1,800 people, and<br />
have recently had to limit the number of patients they<br />
can see. Their goals are to provide free medical care<br />
through an all-volunteer staff and to provide free medications,<br />
or assistance in obtaining them at a muchreduced<br />
price.<br />
“With more than 70 people, we have plenty of volunteers,”<br />
says Humes, the clinic’s volunteer director, to <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
medical students during her presentation in February. “We’ve<br />
even had to tell people that we’ll call when we need them.”<br />
Receptionists, nurses, and doctors are all giving of their free time.<br />
Each volunteer is asked to be there at least once a month and<br />
many are there consistently every week. “We have a number of<br />
retired individuals and stay-at-home mothers who help us out<br />
during the day and working health care professionals who assist<br />
on our evening shift,” explains Humes, who left her medical<br />
practice in 2004 to spend more time with her three young children<br />
and take up this cause. “The clinic is a wonderful place<br />
because all of the volunteers want to be there.”<br />
Although she was armed with a medical degree and plenty of<br />
practical experience, without a background in business, fundraising,<br />
or law, there was much to learn about opening a free clinic<br />
and finding the support to remain viable. “It took awhile to get<br />
the pieces together,” she explains. “There were a lot of things we<br />
needed to know to make it happen.” To learn how to run operations,<br />
the three founders visited a number of free clinics in Illinois<br />
and Iowa.<br />
“We realized early on that the hospital had to buy in to the<br />
process — we needed their support to make this work,” she<br />
admits. “For a hospital, it’s clearly a positive.” Trinity Hospital,<br />
where both Kerry’s primary care and her husband’s (Tim Humes,<br />
MD ’89) radiology practices were connected, realized the benefits<br />
and gave an initial grant of $40,000 to start the clinic off on<br />
solid footing.<br />
“Because we were an unknown entity, once we had Trinity’s<br />
support, it was easier to get others to help us,” Dr. Humes continues.<br />
“The big thing was to find an appropriate space that was<br />
free.” One of the clinic’s founders attended Faith Lutheran<br />
Church, so they began operations in its education wing, which<br />
they were told they could use as long as they needed. Sharing this<br />
space with other programs, they had to set up and tear down<br />
equipment each day. Later on, one of the clinic’s generous board<br />
members donated an 18,000-square-foot<br />
space, where they created four exam<br />
rooms, a waiting area, a doctor space,<br />
and a nurses’ station.<br />
In addition to the hospital, pharmaceutical<br />
companies, other health care<br />
organizations, and local foundations<br />
were willing to provide support. “I’ve<br />
been surprised at the generosity we’ve<br />
experienced,” she explains. “All of our<br />
furniture and equipment has been<br />
Top Left: Kerry Klegar, MD ’90, on her medical school graduation<br />
day. Above: Tim Humes and Kerry Klegar during their medical<br />
school years.<br />
24 ward rounds spring 2010
ALUMni nEWS<br />
Dr. Kerry Humes (center), with Good Samaritan Free Clinic<br />
co-founders Regina Bollaert (left) and Debi Becht.<br />
donated. A local lab has been evaluating our labs at no charge. My<br />
husband’s practice takes X-rays and reads them for free. And<br />
whenever we’ve had to admit a patient, Trinity has written off<br />
those expenses. It’s totaled approximately $80,000, but we’ve<br />
saved the hospital close to $2 million because we’re keeping many<br />
of these people out of the ER.”<br />
Along with free doctor visits, patients get help obtaining free<br />
or reduced-price medications to keep health issues like diabetes,<br />
hypertension, and asthma in check. Chain drugstores like Target,<br />
Walmart, and Walgreens offer many generic medications for $4.<br />
And many pharmaceutical companies offer patient assistance<br />
programs, if you submit the required forms. One volunteer, who<br />
recently became the clinic’s only paid employee, helps patients fill<br />
out and send these forms, obtaining $150,000 worth of medication<br />
at no cost in one year. And for any medications that aren’t<br />
provided elsewhere, the local hospital will supply them at a $5<br />
cost to the patient, charging the clinic the remaining fees.<br />
“If patients take their meds, they’re going to stay out of the<br />
ER and be better off for it,” Humes explains. “Fifty-nine percent<br />
of the uninsured with chronic medical conditions missed at least<br />
one dose of medicine. Of that group, 33 percent visited the ER<br />
for an overnight stay. In Illinois, an overnight stay is $16,000 and<br />
in Iowa, it’s $18,000. It doesn’t take much to see what kind of<br />
an impact the clinic can make.”<br />
Medications are the clinic’s biggest expense. To ensure that<br />
they can help patients pay for the prescriptions they need, Humes<br />
and the other two founders have become grant writers. “I don’t<br />
like asking for money, but it’s for my patients,” the physician<br />
says. Working within their community, they have secured nearly<br />
$200,000 from two fundraisers and a number of grants from private<br />
foundations. “Luckily, we don’t have many expenses<br />
because we operate on a shoestring, so we usually get everything<br />
we ask for.”<br />
One premise of their successful operations is to order only<br />
the diagnostics that are necessary. “I won’t deny my patients<br />
what they need, but I won’t order tests that don’t make sense.<br />
In Illinois, our clinic is protected by the Good Samaritan<br />
Act, which means we don’t have to practice defensive medicine<br />
and can operate without malpractice insurance.” Humes<br />
approves all specialist referrals and expensive procedures.<br />
“This health care model could serve our American system<br />
well and would save us money,” Dr. Humes continues. “The U.S.<br />
orders four times as many CAT scans as other countries at the<br />
same economic level, with no added benefit. And the expectations<br />
of our patients are different — they want to get better and<br />
take care of themselves. They don’t expect a lot of blood work<br />
and extra tests.”<br />
Asked why she started the clinic when she did, Dr. Humes<br />
responds, “It was just the right timing. The hospital where I had<br />
my private practice was phasing out non-employees, my children<br />
were young and I wanted to spend more time with them, and<br />
because my husband has a good job, I was very fortunate to be<br />
able to do this. It’s hard not be intimidated by a project like this,<br />
but I just had to do it.”<br />
Michele M. Weber<br />
Drs. Kerry and Tim Humes with their children (Hannah, Haley and<br />
Charlie) on vacation at Mt. Rushmore.<br />
wardroundsonline.com 25
ALUMni nEWS<br />
Alumni Achievements Recognized at<br />
2010 Reunion Ball<br />
Jeffrey Glassroth, MD, vice dean of Clinical<br />
Academic Affairs, presided as the<br />
master of ceremonies at the 2010 Reunion<br />
Ball, announcing three alumni award<br />
winners who were recognized for their<br />
service to the school, the profession, and<br />
the community.<br />
Joseph DiCara, MD ’86, a pediatric<br />
hospitalist at Prentice Women’s Hospital<br />
in Chicago, received the 2010 Daniel Hale<br />
Williams Award for the Chicago Youth<br />
Program (CYP), which he founded with<br />
fellow medical students in 1984. It began<br />
as a recreational program to keep 40<br />
Cabrini Green kids off the street. Space<br />
was donated by the medical school and<br />
funds were obtained by passing the hat.<br />
During his pediatric residency at Children’s<br />
Memorial, CYP became a nonprofit,<br />
offering many medical students the<br />
opportunity to volunteer in the free clinic.<br />
CYP now includes more than 50 programs<br />
that serve 400-500 youth, preschool<br />
through college, at three Chicago public<br />
housing sites. Six hundred volunteers provide<br />
health care services, injury and pregnancy<br />
prevention, safe recreation, cultural<br />
programs, education, career guidance, and<br />
one-on-one mentoring. For most of its<br />
history, Dr. DiCara has been the volunteer<br />
executive director and has continued his<br />
daily volunteer work.<br />
The 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award was presented to<br />
Bruce Scharschmidt, MD ’70, senior vice president and chief<br />
medical officer at Hyperion Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical<br />
company in South San Francisco. Dr. Scharschmidt has been<br />
active on the Medical Alumni Association national board for the<br />
past six years and is currently serving as president of the Nathan<br />
Smith Davis Club, as well as on the Scientific Advisory Board of<br />
NUCATS, a <strong>Northwestern</strong> organization dedicated to translational<br />
science.<br />
Working with the medical school’s Alumni Relations and<br />
Development groups, he spearheaded the creation of Nathan<br />
Smith Davis Club scholarships for medical students. In November<br />
2009, the first $12,500-per-year grants were awarded based<br />
on both merit and need.<br />
Dr. Melvin Gerbie, MD ’60, professor emeritus of obstetrics<br />
and gynecology, received the 2010 Dean’s Award. A <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
faculty member since 1967, he has served on various hospital<br />
and university committees. In 1975 Dr. Gerbie founded the<br />
Colposcopy Clinic.<br />
He has been honored for his student and resident education<br />
efforts, including an Outstanding Teacher Award, as well as three<br />
Right: Joseph DiCara, MD ’86, received the Daniel Hale Williams<br />
Award for his continued work with the Chicago Youth<br />
Program, an effort he began during his second year of medical<br />
school. Below: Michael Barratt, MD ’85, GME ’89, returns this<br />
sesquicentennial banner to the medical school during the<br />
Alumni Reunion Ball. He carried the flag in his flight pack<br />
during an International Space Station mission.<br />
resident teaching awards. He has received the Medical School<br />
Service Award twice and in 1990, the <strong>University</strong> recognized his<br />
contributions with the Alumni Service Award. In 1996 he was the<br />
recipient of the Chicago Maternity Center Byford Award from<br />
Prentice. In March 2001, he received the <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong><br />
Alumni Association Merit Award.<br />
Dr. Gerbie is a supportive member and past president of the<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> Medical School Alumni Association.<br />
Because of his strong alumni ties, he was tapped to chair the successful<br />
1988-1993 Alumni Fund Campaign for Medical Research<br />
and the Life Sciences. He and his wife co-chaired fundraising<br />
efforts for the medical school’s Albert B. Gerbie Professorship in<br />
Obstetrics and Gynecology, in memory of his brother.<br />
After the alumni awards, Michael R. Barratt, MD ’85, GME<br />
’89, who returned from his mission on the International Space<br />
Station in fall 2009, presented Dr. Glassroth with the medical<br />
school’s Sesquicentennial Banner, which he carried in his official<br />
flight pack. While Alumni Board president Dr. Doug Carr and<br />
emcee Glassroth unfurled the purple and white, Dr. Barratt<br />
shared the travels of this special flag. “It was launched on Space<br />
Shuttle Discovery 119 in March 2009 and spent 180 days in space,<br />
logging over 75 million miles.”<br />
26 ward rounds spring 2010
Send items for Progress Notes to ward-rounds@northwestern.edu<br />
or to the street address on page 29.<br />
Progress Notes Awards & Honors<br />
Jay Perman, MD<br />
’72, has been<br />
appointed the new<br />
president for the<br />
<strong>University</strong> of<br />
Maryland, Baltimore,<br />
where the<br />
schools of medicine,<br />
nursing, pharmacy,<br />
dentistry,<br />
social work, and law are located, along<br />
with a graduate school. Currently, Dr.<br />
Perman is dean and vice president for clinical<br />
affairs at the <strong>University</strong> of Kentucky<br />
College of Medicine. He will join UMB as<br />
president in early July.<br />
Arnold R. Eiser, MD ’74, received the<br />
ACGME Parker Palmer Courage to Lead<br />
Award for Designated Institutional Official<br />
in March at their annual conference.<br />
He has also been named a senior fellow of<br />
the Jefferson School of Population Health<br />
and an associate fellow at the Center for<br />
Bioethics at the <strong>University</strong> of Pennsylvania<br />
School of Medicine. Dr. Eiser continues<br />
as vice president of medical education<br />
for the Mercy Health System and associate<br />
dean and professor of medicine at Drexel<br />
<strong>University</strong> College of Medicine.<br />
In January,<br />
Christina Jenkins,<br />
MD ’00, was<br />
appointed by<br />
Mayor Michael<br />
Bloomberg to the<br />
board of directors<br />
of New York<br />
City’s Health and<br />
Hospitals Corporation<br />
(HHC). HHC is the largest municipal<br />
health care system in the U.S., with<br />
11 acute care hospitals serving 1.2 million<br />
New Yorkers annually. Dr. Jenkins is<br />
adjunct faculty at the Mount Sinai<br />
Medical Center and chief medical officer<br />
of HealthWage, a health care startup<br />
launched in October 2009 to provide<br />
incentives promoting long-term changes<br />
in behaviors associated with preventable<br />
diseases.<br />
The Mayor of<br />
Highland Park, Ill.,<br />
has appointed<br />
Albert J. Miller,<br />
MD ’46, to the<br />
Healthy Highland<br />
Park Task Force,<br />
an organization<br />
dedicated to health<br />
education and<br />
implementation of preventive measures<br />
in that city.<br />
Michael F. Schafer, MD, GME ’72,<br />
was appointed chair of the Communications<br />
Cabinet of the American Academy<br />
of Orthopaedic Surgeons at its board of<br />
directors meeting in New Orleans in<br />
March. During his two-year term, he will<br />
help communicate the academy’s activities<br />
to members, patients and the public. The<br />
cabinet will plan, organize, direct, and<br />
evaluate ongoing communication vehicles<br />
for the academy.<br />
A “Renaissance Man”<br />
Galter Library<br />
Changes Alumni<br />
Services<br />
Nicholas Demos, MD ’55, GME ‘58, of Short Hills, N.J., is professor of clinical surgery<br />
at <strong>University</strong> of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey, where he has been teaching since<br />
the early 1960s. Dr. Demos spends his weekends painting and perfecting his foreign<br />
language skills. “I speak English, Greek, and Spanish fluently, while I simply get by<br />
speaking French, German, and Italian. I am also able to say ‘good morning’ in two<br />
dozen other languages.”<br />
As of June 1, 2010, the Galter Health Sciences<br />
Library will provide only on-site<br />
access to GHSL print and electronic materials<br />
to alumni with a valid Alumni Membership<br />
card. Remote electronic access to<br />
JAMA and other materials will no longer<br />
be available. Electronic copies of Libraryowned<br />
articles can be accessed for a fee<br />
through the Loansome Doc service. Free<br />
alumni services include answers to short<br />
reference questions, book check out for<br />
locals, and classes on many topics. Indepth<br />
literature research services can be<br />
provided for a fee.<br />
See the full alumni service list at:<br />
www.galter.northwestern.edu/Request-<br />
Services-and-Materials/alumni.<br />
wardroundsonline.com 27
ALUMNI NEWS<br />
Progress Notes<br />
1950<br />
William Cape, MD, GME ’51, of Lake<br />
Forest, Ill., is attending physician emeritus<br />
at Highland Park Hospital. Dr. Cape and<br />
his wife, Norma, are enjoying life at Lake<br />
Forest Place, a retirement community.<br />
While Dr. Cape spends one day per week<br />
practicing cardiology at a free clinic, he says<br />
the couple spends most of their time feeding<br />
their addiction to competitive bridge.<br />
An Able Wife, Mother, Doctor<br />
1960<br />
Elsie Enns Steelberg, MD, of Wichita,<br />
Kan., continues to practice as a full-time<br />
psychiatrist. In order to spend more time<br />
seeing patients, she joined a psychotherapist<br />
and an advanced registered nurse<br />
practitioner in opening a private practice<br />
in October 2008.<br />
1969<br />
Louis Fazen III, MD, is chairman of the<br />
Board of Health in Southborough, Mass.<br />
After leaving an established pediatrics<br />
practice two years ago, Dr. Fazen says he<br />
is now enjoying his “encore career.” He<br />
also works part time with the Indian<br />
Health Service, taking numerous trips to<br />
the Painted Desert in Tuba City, Ariz., and<br />
to the golden wheat fields of Wolf Point,<br />
Mont. Dr. Fazen says these experiences<br />
have taught him a great deal about the<br />
Navajo and Sioux cultures.<br />
1985<br />
S. Ahmed Abdullah, MD, a plastic surgeon<br />
and owner of Plastic Surgery Institute<br />
in Fargo, N.D., and founder of Lexli<br />
International, a skin care company,<br />
recently partnered with the Dubai Health<br />
Authority to sponsor the construction of<br />
a 100-bed surgical specialty hospital in<br />
Dubai. Care at the hospital will be provided<br />
by board-certified physicians from<br />
the U.S. who will administer services to<br />
patients during month-long rotations. Dr.<br />
Abdullah says he is in search of physicians<br />
to participate in this project.<br />
Laurie Gutstein, MD, GME ’90, of Fort<br />
Meyers, Fla., is a diagnostic radiologist for<br />
NightHawk Radiology Services. Dr. Gutstein<br />
has been performing teleradiology for<br />
the past seven years.<br />
Lynn Ables, MD ‘85, GME ’88, of Winfield, Ill., was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in<br />
October 2006, but is happy to report she completed treatment in January 2008 and is<br />
doing well. She and her husband, Dennis Lyons, have five children (ages 4 to 10), including<br />
two sets of twins. Dr. Ables is currently employed as a pediatrician at Wheaton Pediatrics.<br />
Phil Johnson, MD, of Lakeside, Ariz., is<br />
on the state advisory board, assisting in the<br />
development of the trauma system. Dr.<br />
Johnson is also assistant professor and<br />
medical director of the emergency department<br />
at Summit Healthcare Regional<br />
Medical Center.<br />
1986<br />
John J. Alam, MD, of Cambridge, Mass.,<br />
recently joined Inhibitex, Inc. as its senior<br />
medical advisor. Dr. Alam will be responsible<br />
for formulating and directing the<br />
clinical and regulatory strategies for Inhibitex’s<br />
development programs. Dr. Alam<br />
was formerly executive vice president of<br />
medicines development and chief medical<br />
officer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.<br />
Vikram Khanna, MD, of South Barrington,<br />
Ill., and his wife, Ruby Khanna,<br />
DC, recently welcomed their second child,<br />
Jahaan Dev. He joins sister Rania Shree.<br />
1999<br />
Richard Heller III, MD, GME ’00, of<br />
Oak Lawn, Ill., and his wife, Beth, have<br />
two boys, Richard IV (4 years old) and<br />
Julian (2 years old). Dr. Heller is chief of<br />
pediatric radiology at Advocate Hope<br />
Children’s Hospital.<br />
2000<br />
Brendan Tribble, MD, has been working<br />
as an anesthesiologist at the Naval Medical<br />
Center San Diego. Dr. Tribble and his<br />
wife, Leah, will be moving their family to<br />
Guam this fall. Dr. Tribble was previously<br />
stationed for three years in Spain, where<br />
he served as a flight surgeon.<br />
2001<br />
Anand Shivnani, MD, GME ’06, of<br />
Irving, Texas, and his wife, Sarika B. Shivnani,<br />
MD, welcomed their second son,<br />
Vijay, on March 3, 2009. Dr. A. Shivnani is<br />
currently a radiation oncologist at Baylor<br />
Irving Cancer Center.<br />
28 ward rounds spring 2010
UPCoMIng EVEnTS<br />
2003<br />
Carina Yang, MD, GME ’08, FEL ’09,<br />
of Chicago, will soon be joining a private<br />
radiology practice in Naperville, Ill.<br />
For the past year, Dr. Yang has been a<br />
neuroradiology attending at Children’s<br />
Memorial Hospital, where she is also<br />
assistant professor of radiology.<br />
In Memoriam<br />
John W. Brouhard, MD ’53, GME ’58,<br />
GME ’60, of Arlington Heights, Ill., died<br />
November 7, 2009.<br />
G. Tyson Carpenter, MD ’45, of St.<br />
Joseph, Mo., died February 5, 2010.<br />
Allen M. Ransdell, MD ’59, GME ’65,<br />
GME ’68, of San Diego, Calif., died<br />
February 25, 2010.<br />
Alexander Sanders, MD ’36, of Indianapolis,<br />
Ind., died March 8, 2010.<br />
Homer M. Smathers, MD ’43, of<br />
West Bloomfield, Mich., died February<br />
27, 2010.<br />
Edward O. Willoughby, MD ’43, GME<br />
’49, of Downers Grove, Ill., died March<br />
16, 2010.<br />
Items for Progress Notes may be<br />
sent to the Office of Communications,<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong>,<br />
Feinberg School of Medicine,<br />
420 East Superior Street, Rubloff<br />
12th floor, Chicago, Illinois 60611<br />
or via e-mail to ward-rounds@<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong>.edu. They may also<br />
be submitted online at www.ward<br />
roundsonline.com. Be sure to include<br />
the year the MD degree was received<br />
or the GME or Other Program was<br />
completed. Photo submissions also<br />
are welcomed. Please note: Progress<br />
Notes appearing in the print edition<br />
of <strong>Ward</strong> <strong>Rounds</strong> may be posted on<br />
<strong>Ward</strong><strong>Rounds</strong>Online.com and are<br />
password-protected.<br />
August 7, 2010<br />
Update of Eczema, Asthma, and Atopic Conditions /<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> Memorial Hospital, Feinberg Pavilion Conference<br />
Center, 251 E. Huron, Chicago. For more information, call<br />
312/695-6837.<br />
August 13-15, 2010<br />
Controversies & Conversations in Laser and Cosmetic<br />
Surgery / Four Seasons Aviara, 7100 Four Seasons Point,<br />
Carlsbad, Calif. Associate course director: Murad Alam, MD.<br />
For more information, call 817/922 -0984.<br />
Oc tober 6 , 2010<br />
2nd Annual Hospital Medicine Procedures Precourse /<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> Memorial Hospital, Feinberg Pavilion Conference<br />
Center, 251 E. Huron, Chicago. For more information, contact<br />
the Office of Continuing Medical Education, <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine, 312/503-8533.<br />
Oc tober 7- 9 , 2010<br />
6th Annual Midwestern Hospital Medicine Conference /<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> Memorial Hospital, Feinberg Pavilion Conference<br />
Center, 251 E. Huron, Chicago. For more information, contact<br />
the Office of Continuing Medical Education, <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of Medicine, 312/503-8533.<br />
Oc tober 16 -18 , 2010<br />
Echo <strong>Northwestern</strong> 2010 / <strong>Northwestern</strong> Memorial Hospital,<br />
Feinberg Pavilion Conference Center, 251 E. Huron, Chicago.<br />
For more information, contact the Office of Continuing Medical<br />
Education, <strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong> Feinberg School of<br />
Medicine, 312/503-8533.<br />
Oc tober 28-31, 2010<br />
12th Annual Lynn Sage Conference / Fairmont Hotel, 200<br />
North Columbus Dr., Chicago. For more information, contact the<br />
Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of <strong>Northwestern</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong> Education Center, 312/695-1392.<br />
correction:<br />
A photo caption in the Spring 2010 Progress Notes entitled,<br />
“Visiting Beirut,” misidentified Dr. Fuad Chemali’s wife Dolly<br />
(who is pictured in the photo) as Lynn Eckert, MD, DPH, the<br />
spouse of Dr. Louis Fazen III. Our apologies for this error.<br />
Additional photography<br />
Randy Belice, p.1 (bottom), pp.18-21<br />
Andrew Campbell, p. 2<br />
Teresa Crawford, pp. 4, 5, 19, 21<br />
Nathan Mandell, pp. 3, 23<br />
Jim Ziv, p. 1 (top), pp. 10, 13
<strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong><br />
Office of Communications<br />
<strong>Northwestern</strong> <strong>University</strong><br />
Feinberg School of Medicine<br />
420 East Superior Street, Rubloff 12th floor<br />
Chicago, Illinois 60611<br />
Change Service Requested<br />
Look for our first onlineonly<br />
issue of <strong>Ward</strong> <strong>Rounds</strong><br />
in October.<br />
It will include a photo feature on the new<br />
Simulation Technology and Immersive<br />
Learning Center at Feinberg.<br />
Provide us with your current e-mail address and we will send you a link when the fall issue is “live.”<br />
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